It had been awhile since i have posted here. I have been training for half marathons for the past 2 yrs, but with DH training this winter/spring for a spring marathon, it won't leave much time. (Dd is 7, so obviously can't stay home alone.) I am also a bit training fatigued and need a break from that distance. I would like to run a small late April 5k in about 24:00 or less. The top females in this race last year finished in 25:00ish, so I am motivated to place.
This summer I trained hard (well, hard for me) for 2 fall halfs and PR'd at 1:55. I also PR'D This summer in 10k 52:35, and 5k at 24:17. I was following the Running Room Half Marathon training schedule. I will be training through the winter on the treadmill because I hate the frigid Canadian winters we get.
What would you recommend? TIA
If you ran a 24:17 during HM training, 24 minutes on the 5K will be a good goal for you if you dedicate yourself to 5K training before April.
I ran all my 5Ks using Hal Higdon's 5K training, but if you have a bit more experience than I had when I raced those, take a look at Daniels' plans. You can create your own, keeping his speed workouts tailored for the 5K-15K.
Damaris
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Speed work? Maybe go with Daniels. If you need a plan, he has some for different weekly mileage volume you want to run. If you prefer making your own schedule, he (Daniels) explains everything very well.
You ran 24:17 off half marathon training. You should easily go sub-24 with a race specific schedule. There's notihng in that half schedule that is specific to 5k training. You just have the one [1] quality workout beginning in week 5 so almost any workouts you do that approach 5k pace would be helpful. Shocked to see not one tempo-based workout. I would begin there as you have plenty of time to introduce more race-specific [speed] workouts before your April date.
Youth Has No Age. ~ Picasso / 1st road race: Charleston Distance Run 15 Miler - 1974 / profile
Are we there, yet?
Runners react differently to training, so the mix of workouts is really very personal, but some tempo paced runs and some intervals should be included for 5K training. I tend to thrive on speed work, so I lean a little more toward more intervals and less tempo runs for 5K to capitalize on my speed. When I move up in distance, I emphasize tempo runs more to compensate for my weakness there. So you really need to experiment a little to see what works best for you for that particular distance. What I would suggest to start would be alternating weeks of 20 minute tempo runs and 800m-1000m intervals. If your base can handle the workload and you're willing to do the work, you might try both tempo and intervals weekly, but most recreational runners, even those who have run a marathon, don't have the base to maintain that kind of training schedule.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
I think it's very reasonable to aim for a mid to low 23:00 5k for the spring. Simply add speedwork, in the form of intervals most of the time, with a tempo run replacing the intervals every 2-3 weeks. Your intervals should be done at 5k pace (or start with 10k pace if you prefer). As time goes by, you can increase the pace of those intervals when you feel yourself improving in speed. Try to keep good weekly mileage, like you did for HM training, but your LRs do not have to be as long as they used to be. Congratulations on your awesome PRs! Good luck in your quest for first place in your spring 5k!
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Seven Deadly Shins
Run track intervals once a week, from 400 to 1600 m and back again.
The interval part should total from under 3 to about 4.5 miles, e.g. 10 x 400, 6 x 800, 5 x 1200, 4 x 1600 and up. Rest for 2:00 to 2:45 between repeats. Start at below 10K pace and gradually, as your fitness improves, drop to 15-20 sec below 5K pace. Jog from 1 to 1.5 mile warmup and cooldown before and after. Also do a few strides before you get into the interval part. Aim to run all intervals in a session at the same pace, but do the last repeat slightly faster than the rest. If you are too tired and slowing down by the end, you are running them too fast.
good luck!
From the Internet.
Agree with everyone else - intervals and tempos will both help you out. I dropped my 5K from a PB of 26:00 in 2012/recent PB of 27:15 to 23:36 this fall. Intervals at/faster than 5K pace are good for building speed but I also give tempos and progression runs a lot of credit for giving me the ability to be comfortable with being uncomfortable - I think that was a weak point for me before, I was too conservative and wouldn't be uncomfortable until the very end of the race, at which point I'd left so much time out there that I'd never be able to make it up.
I didn't follow a particular plan, just started with one quality day per week and bumped up to two quality days for the last two months before my race. I like running fast and my legs handled it fine but YMMV - I'm pretty low mileage to be putting in that kind of work (25-30mpw total), and I did it knowing that I'd be taking a few weeks of down time to recover right after my goal races and then base-building all winter.
For all the grief it gets the treadmill makes running intervals about as simple as it gets:
Warm up for 1 to 4 miles (whatever you are comfortable with) then run in 60 second intervals for as fast as you think you are capable. Jog for 2 or 3 minutes, then repeat. I used to do sets of 8 way back when, but 4 is fine for a start or whatever you deem satisfactory.
Over the days, weeks and months increase the time spent running fast and/or decrease the time jogging. You really need not keep track of anything but the pace you are sprinting at, trying to beat it each time out. You will be surprised at just how fun and challenging it is and how well the body responds to the stimulus.
Be mindful of over-striding (trying to keep up with the belt) and run centered over your feet. If you cannot run over your feet then the pace you have chosen is likely too fast.
Since you are familiar with training and quality work, you might just be past this point and could opt for some of the other great suggestions that have been posted here. But for anyone else treadmill intervals are speed work in its most simplistic form, I began doing them when I was running on the treadmill for cardio a billion years ago. A time when I would have laughed out loud at the suggestion that I would someday become a runner!